1) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a self-scanning POS system for use in the distribution industry, particularly in a store such as a mass sales store, a convenience store or a supermarket wherein, using a shopping cart (hand cart), or a shopping basket for accommodating and transporting purchased commodities, a customer can purchase a commodity while the customer itself reads a commodity code such as a bar code applied to the commodity and also to a self-scanning registration terminal, a control apparatus for a self-scanning registration terminal and a POS apparatus for a self-scanning registration terminal for use with the self-scanning POS system.
2) Description of the Related Art
Generally, a POS system is employed in various stores such as supermarkets and convenience stores. In the POS system, a customer walks around in a store pushing a shopping cart or carrying a shopping basket, places commodities to be purchased into the shopping cart or the shopping basket, and comes to a settlement POS terminal (POS register).
Then at the settlement POS terminal, an operator takes out the commodities one by one from the shopping cart or the shopping basket and reads the bar codes (commodity codes) applied to the commodities by means of a scanner to effect registration processing. In particular, in accordance with commodity code information read from each bar code, the price of the commodity corresponding to the commodity code is retrieved from a commodity information file (a Price Look Up, or PLU file), and a total amount of money of the purchased commodities is calculated to settle the accounts.
With such a POS system, however, since an operator must perform a reading operation of a commodity code of each commodity, much time is required for such reading operation and a settling operation, which causes the customer to wait for a long time. Accordingly, in a time band in which customers are crowded, a queue of customers is produced in front of a settlement POS terminal, and besides, the burden on the operator is heavy.
Thus, in recent years, a shopping cart (scanning cart) or a shopping basket having a scanner (commodity code reading section) for reading a bar code (commodity code) applied to a commodity has been developed and is disclosed in various publications including, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Application No. Showa 63-145591.
In a POS system which employs a shopping cart or a shopping basket of the type mentioned, a customer itself reads a bar code applied to a commodity to be purchased by means of the scanner to register the commodity code information and places or accommodates the commodity into an accommodating section of the shopping cart or the shopping basket, and then after selection of commodities to be purchased is completed, the commodities are placed into the shopping cart or the shopping basket and transported to a settlement POS terminal.
Then at the settlement POS terminal, the commodity code information (or commodity price information corresponding to the commodity code information) registered by the customer itself is loaded down, and a total amount of money of the purchased commodities is calculated based on the commodity code information (commodity price information) to effect settlement of the accounts.
With the POS system, an operator need no more read the commodity codes of commodities one-by-one, and the time (register operation time) required for reading processing and settling processing can be reduced significantly. Consequently, the customer need not wait for a long time and also the burden on the operator can be reduced remarkably.
On the other hand, in order to provide better services to customers, various conditions or terms are often provided such as a time service condition wherein a discount in price is given when a particular commodity is purchased within a predetermined period, a bundle condition wherein a discount in price is given when a particular commodity is purchased at a predetermined number or quantity, a mix-match condition wherein a discount in price is given when a plurality of kinds of particular commodities are purchased in combination and a pair match condition wherein a discount in price is given when all of a plurality of different kinds of particular commodities are purchased. A POS system is required to cope with any of such discount conditions for such particular commodity or commodities.
With a self-scanning POS system of the type just mentioned, there is a problem to be solved in that a settlement POS terminal having a function of loading down commodity code information from a shopping cart is required. Besides, a host apparatus requires drastic modifications in both of the phases of the software and the hardware, and it is impossible to introduce existing software and hardware to construct a system readily. Thus, there is another problem to be solved in that a very high cost is required to realize an intended system.
Further, when any of discount conditions for a particular commodity or commodities such as a time service condition, a bundle condition, a mix-match condition and a pair match condition is satisfied, an amount of money after discounted or price reduction may be displayed. However, where an amount of money is merely displayed, the customer cannot determine whether or not the price of the commodity or commodities is actually discounted or reduced and may, having some doubts, inquire a shop person about the matter, resulting in degradation of the service, which is a further problem to be solved with the self-scanning POS system.